Category Archives: GIGA Hamburg

GIGA Training Programm Winter Term 2023 – Course: Research Design and Strategy

Date and time: 1 Nov, 10 am – 5 pm and 2 Nov, 10 am – 4 pm
Place: GIGA, in person
Target group: Doctoral Researchers
Language: English

Description: This course will introduce the students to the main steps of research design in social sciences, from the formulation of the research question to case selection and choice of methods. It explores how to identify the empirical phenomenon of interest, how to do a systematic literature review, what makes for a good research question, how to elaborate testable hypotheses and advance theory, and ways to justify the choice of cases and methods. The course will draw on relevant literature, provide concrete examples, and offer room for discussion throughout its various sessions. On the second day, there will be time reserved for students to present and discuss their own research.

About the lecturer: Edalina Rodrigues Sanches is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her research interests comprise democratization, popular protest, constituency service, political institutions, elections, political parties and party systems, with a focus on Africa.

*Participants need to register online by filling in the registration form that is available on our website.
Registration deadline: Thursday, 17 October 2023
Confirmations of successful registration will only be sent after the deadline has passed.
For questions, please contact Alejandra Calderon at alejandra.calderon@giga-hamburg.de

GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg

GIGA Summer Term Programme 2020

Due to the coronavirus situation all courses will be offered online!

The following seminars are open to doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers at the GIGA and its partner institutions. Please note that other external participants are asked to pay a small course fee.

26 May 2020
Research Data Management
Catharina Wasner, GIGA

4 – 5 June 2020
Case Studies, Process Tracing, and Comparative Analysis
Eleanor Knott, London School of Economics

11 June 2020
Global Approach to CAS Series I: Economic Statecraft in the Middle East: Conceptualization and Case Studies
Eckart Woertz, GIGA

17 June 2020
Global Approach to CAS Series II: Choosing case studies in comparative research
Merike Blofield, GIGA

22 – 23 June 2020
Qualitative Interviews
Alenka Jelen-Sanchez, University of Stirling

29 – 30 June 2020
Regression Analysis
Michael Dorsch, Central European University

Participants need to register online by filling in the registration form that is available on the website of the respective event.
Registration deadline: Thursday, 14 May 2020
Confirmations of successful registration will only be sent after the deadline has passed.

#GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies: Global Approach to CAS Series I: Economic Statecraft in the Middle East: Conceptualization and #CaseStudies (11.06.2002)

Target audience
Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Researchers at GIGA and Partner Institutions

About the course
Compared to its share of the world’s population the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) accounts for percentages of global combat deaths, terrorist attacks, and refugees five to 11 times over. The underlying conflicts have economic aspects, too. The region has seen a large array of international and intra-regional sanctions and blockades. State funds and geo-economic strategies have been used to strengthen the resilience of authoritarian states. The MENA’s endowment with oil rents and strategic location along trade routes has engendered particular development models. The region’s states have seen their autonomy in economic decision-making challenged by compromised sovereignty in areas of limited statehood, where (violent) non-state actors command extractive capacities in a certain territory or economic sector. The respective states, in turn, integrate economic strategies in counterinsurgencies and efforts to re-assert control. Economic warfare is rampant in the MENA yet contextual knowledge of how it affects the political economies of its states, their international relations, and the socio-political coalitions that carry them is often missing, not based on local sources and perceptions, and insufficiently theorized.

This 2-hour lecture uses the UN embargo against Iraq (1990-2003) as a case study and discusses how Comparative Area Studies (CAS) can provide necessary correctives to the narratives of large n-studies that focus on sending countries and their sanction instruments.

This course will be offered online.

About the lecturer
Eckart Woertz is the Director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies.

Please note that other external participants than the one mentioned in the target group above are asked to pay a small course fee.

Registration closes 14 May 2020.

Further information and registration

Content retrieved from: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/dp/training/course-programme/clone-of-global-approach-to-cas-series-i-economic-statecraft-in-the.

#GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies: #CaseStudies, #ProcessTracing and #ComparativeAnalysis (04.-05.06.2020)

Target audience
Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Researchers at GIGA and Partner Institutions

About the course
Case studies are the backbone of social science. At the same time, we need a stronger and more rigorous methodological backbone to case study research to maintain the leverage that knowledge from this within-case and cross-case methods can generate. In this two day workshop, we begin by looking at the case as a unit of analysis asking “of what is this a case?” (Lund 2014) before addressing specific methodologies of process tracing and comparative approaches. In particular, we will address different approaches to comparison, both variable-oriented and messier case-oriented comparisons, as well as area-based and across-area comparisons, to address the logic and value of comparing in the political and international analysis.

The workshop will, for the most part, consist of a mixture of lectures and practical interactive exercises. We will also make space for students to present briefly their projects in development as they pertain to the methods of the workshop.

This course will be offered online.

About the lecturer
Eleanor Knott is an Assistant Professor in Qualitative Methodology in the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics.

Please note that other external participants than the one mentioned in the target group above are asked to pay a small course fee.

Registration closes 14 May 2020.

Further information and registration

#GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies: #Research #DataManagement – Introductory Course for Doctoral Students (26.05.2020)

Target audience
Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Researchers at GIGA and Partner Institutions

About the course
2-hours introductory course aims at helping doctoral students to develop their knowledge and skills regarding research data management. The topics that will be introduced in this course are organized along the research cycle starting from proposal planning and writing as well as project start-up over the data life cycle (including data collection, data analysis and data sharing) to the end of a research project, data archiving and data discovery.

This course will be offered online.

About the lecturer
Catharina Wasner is a Research Data Manager at the GIGA Information Centre.

Please note that other external participants than the one mentioned in the target group above are asked to pay a small course fee.

Registration closes 14 May 2020.

Registration and further information

GIGA Winter Term Programme 2019: 10 October – 2 December

GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg

The following seminars are open to doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers at the GIGA and its partner institutions. Please note that other external participants are asked to pay a small course fee.

10 – 11 October Research Design and Strategy Edalina Rodrigues Sanches, Universidade de Lisboa
14 – 15 October Qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis Alexandra Hartman, UCL
21 – 22 October Experimental Methods in the Social Sciences Joanna Gereke, MZES

Nan Zhang, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

5 – 6 November Data Analysis with R Rodrigo Rodrigues-Silveira, Salamanca University
12 November Concept formation and measurement Saskia Ruth-Lovell, GIGA
25 November Global approach to CAS Series I Patrick Köllner, GIGA
2 December Global approach to CAS Series II André Bank, GIGA

Information on Registration
Participants need to register online by filling in the registration form that is available on the website of the respective event. Please note that your registration will be confirmed by email only after the deadline (there is no automatic registration confirmation).

Questions regarding the course programme or registration should be addressed to Paula Denker. 

Registration deadline: Tuesday, 24 September 2019

GIGA Summer Term Programme: 16 April – 24 June 2019

GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
20354 Hamburg

The following seminars are open to doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers at the GIGA and its partner institutions. Please note that other external participants are asked to pay a small course fee.

Registration deadline: Monday, 1 April 2019

2 May Global Approach to CAS Series I: Comparing cases of populismAndreas Ufen, GIGA
6-7
May
Qualitative Data Analysis: How to find meaning in your texts Nicola Nymalm, SIIA & Maren Wagner, GIGA
16-17 May Qualitative InterviewingLea Sgier, Uni Geneve
23-24 May Introduction to LaTeXBruno Castanho Silva, Cologne Center for Comparative Politics
27
May
Global Approach to CAS Series II: Conceptualizing and measuring
political clientelism in comparative perspective
Saskia Ruth, GIGA
4-5
June
Process tracing methods – an introductionDerek Beach, University of Aarhus
12-13
June
An Introduction to the Logic and Practiceo Qualitative Comparative
Analysis (QCA)
David Kuehn & Julia Grau- vogel, GIGA
24
June
Global Approach to CAS Series III: What does gender have to do with it? Discussing the integration of gender analyses in comparative area stu- dies and the global approach Miriam Prys-Hansen, GIGA

Information on Registration

Participants need to register online by filling in the registration form that is available on the website of the respective event. Please note that you will receive a confirmation on whether your registration has been successful only after the registration deadline has passed.

External participants that are not a member of the GIGA or one of its partner institutions are asked to pay a small course fee.

Questions regarding the course programme or registration should be addressed to Madina Bizhanova.

Registration deadline: Monday, 1 April 2019

Call for Applications: GIGA Doctoral Programme

The GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien is an independent social science research institute based in Hamburg. It analyses political, social and economic developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and links this knowledge to questions of global significance. It combines region-specific analysis with innovative comparative research on accountability and participation, peace and security, growth and development, and power and ideas. The GIGA Doctoral Programme invites applications from

Prospective Doctoral Students

to join the programme on 1 October 2019. The GIGA Doctoral Programme (DP) is a three-year structured programme for junior researchers, in which they can pursue their research and professional development, particularly in the field of comparative area studies (CAS). GIGA doctoral students are fully integrated into the GIGA’s research structure and benefit from close supervision within an international research environment. The training programme fosters their engagement with the GIGA’s global approach to scholarship and provides them with the necessary methodological and soft skills to pursue a career in academia and beyond. Through academic exchanges and field work, doctoral students engage with the ‘GIGA-regions’ and build their own networks. Additional mobility grants are provided for field work and conference attendance and, in line with the Leibniz Association’s principle of ‘theoria cum praxi’, doctoral students are offered exposure to policy advice and knowledge transfer activities. Doctoral degrees will be awarded by one of our partner universities, dependent upon the affiliation of the student’s first Supervisor.

Applicants are expected to fulfil the following criteria:

  • An excellent grade point average and a final degree (masters or equivalent) in political science/international relations, economics, history or a related discipline.
  • A high-quality project proposal that fits with the GIGA’s research agenda. Priority will be given to projects with a cross-regional or a comparative area studies focus.
  • Strong command of the English language (German is not a prerequisite).

We strongly welcome international applications. Diversity and the reconciliation of work and family life are of great importance to the institute.

Please fill out the GIGA DP application form: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/dp/application and send it with your full application (Ref.-No. GIGA-19-01) including:

  • a letter of motivation, a research proposal of 2000 words max. and an additional academic writing sample,
  • a CV and simple copies of degrees and academic transcripts (BA, Diploma, MA),
  • proof of English language skills, and
  • a statement about intended funding for the duration of three years (final admission is dependent upon the applicant’s ability to provide proof of funding by the starting date)

to Kerstin Labusga, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany. Email: jobs-dp@giga-hamburg.de (Email applications, preferably in a single pdf file, are particularly welcome).

Screening of applications will begin on 1 February 2019.

For further information, including a list of FAQs, please visit the GIGA DP website www.giga-ham-burg.de/en/dp. You may also contact us at: dpgiga@giga-hamburg.de.

GIGA Information Centre Workshops 2018

The GIGA Information Centre and a cooperating Partner offer four 1-hour workshops. Please find some more information below. Please note that the number of participants is limited.

  1. Satisfy your grant requirements – Learn how to write a data management plan! (Birte Pfeiffer, 16/10/2018, 10-11 am)

Funders like the German Research Foundation and EU Horizon 2020 require you to add a data management paragraph or a complete data management plan in a funding proposal. This interactive workshop aims at providing you with guidelines that help you fulfil these requirements in order to submit successive project proposals. The workshop will help you answering some of the questions that are commonly addressed in a data management plan: What kind of data will you be collecting? Where will you store your data? With whom and how will you share your data? How will others be able to understand the data? How will you preserve your data for the long term?

You will be more likely to receive future funding when you know how to write and follow through a well-structured data management plan.

[register (open until 8/10/2018)]

  1. Don’t you fear the scary Excel stories when compiling your research data? – What are your software requirements for data entry? (Birte Pfeiffer, 13/11/2018, 10-11 am)

Excel has a well-documented history of silently corrupting data in unexpected ways. Moreover, a couple of functions needed for effective entering, managing and analysing research data is missing. This interactive workshop aims at assessing and discussing your needs regarding software tools for the collection of research data. The identified needs will be systematized and will be incorporated in a funding proposal.

The identified needs regarding data entry software will be considered in a project proposal of the GIGA Information Centre and cooperating partners in order to develop a data collection tool for GIGA researchers and the social sciences community.

[register (open until 30/10/2018)]

  1. Quantitative Data Sharing with SowiDataNet (Birte Pfeiffer, 27/11/2018, 10-11 am)

In this workshop GIGA’s new repository SowiDataNet provided by GESIS for sharing quantitative research data will be introduced. SowiDataNet is a research data repository for the social sciences and economics that enables researchers to easily and securely document, publish and share (quantitative) primary and secondary data. Submitted research data will be curated by GIGA’s Research Data Service to ensure high formal quality of your published research data.

Participants will have a basic understanding of the required workflows if they want to share their quantitative data in SowiDataNet.

[register (open until 13/11/2018)]

  1. Flexible Strategien für eine forschungsfreundliche Archivierung und Nachnutzung von qualitativen Daten (Susanne Kretzer, Qualiservice Bremen, 11.12.2018, 10-11 Uhr)

[Registrierung (offen bis 27.11.2018)]